Council gets tough on car abandoning

March 2003

COUNCIL officials have warned that motorists found guilty of abandoning cars in the scenic Wicklow Mountains will face the toughest penalties.

The warning followed a conviction secured in court last week against a Dublin man whose burnt out vehicle was recovered by the council on the main Sally Gap to Blessington Road, last year.

Car owner Derek O’Rourke of Gortmore Park, Finglas, Co. Dublin was fined €1,000 and ordered to pay more than €300 costs, when he was convicted at Bray Court for being responsible for the vehicle.

Conservation ranger Enda Mullen told the court that he observed the burnt out Ford Escort car on the Sally Gap road on November 3 last.

Steps were taken to identify the owner of the vehicle, and on foot of that the owner was issued with a litter fine and a notice to rmove the car.

The car’s owner claimed in correspondence to the council that he had sold the vehicle on for scrap.

Jude Murrough Connellan imposed of fine of €1,000 on the defendant for littering, ordered that he should pay €75 removal cost, and a further €245 legal costs to Wicklow County Council.

A council spokesman said that the local authority were vigorously pursuing any car owners who were found guilty of abandoning their unwanted vehicles in the Wicklow Mountains.

She said that the person liable for prosecution was the last known owner of the vehicle. ‘It is not adequate for someone to say they have sold the car on, if they are still registered with the motor tax office was the owner of the vehicle. If they have sold it on then there is an onus on them to report this fact to the tax authorities,’ she stated.